Friday could've been a lot better...

 Hi everyone,

Friday just sucked in so many ways, sure I got some compression socks because I'm at the age I need them apparently... but I ended up losing the entire afternoon because I just fell asleep after finding out work was cancelled, so that is now four days to make up. Sure I was told things should be better with more focus group work coming in... but that isn't till early or mid August.

Then there was when I woke up at 6:30 PM... and discovering my internet was bugging out again, lots of Upstream Power Levels dropping below 40 with the channels becoming unlocked... so I have another Comcast tech coming out between 4 and 6 PM on Satirday. Was so frustrated ended up ordering some takeout.

So the stream ended up starting a little after 8 PM and we went all out in regards to side-questing and doing things in Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales, finding another cat, seeing Miles crossing paths with the King Pin, knocking out various achievement / trophies, while also seeing how much ground work is being laid to integrate people unfamiliar with Miles to his world, which is a lot more down to earth in various ways when compared to Peter Parker. This is probably best seen in how much of the game revolves around Harlem, considering the most side quests take place in that portion of the map and how littler there is to do every place else. 

That said, if we go all out we can finish Spider-Man Miles Morales the next time we play since everything left revolves around side quests and the main story, plus stray trophies such as finding specific locations. It does seem like some trophies are tied to a New-Game Plus run, which (a costume, three abilities and 4 gadget upgrades) which is rather disappointing.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4) Trophies

• I'm On A Boat: Ride the derelict boat in southern Chinatown
• Urban Explorers: Collect all Time Capsules
• 100x Combo!!!: Perform a 100x Combo
• Five Star Review: Complete all FNSM app requests
• The Core of the Problem: Investigate Roxxon's underground lab
• Invisible Spider: Defeat 50 enemies while Camouflaged
• True Deception: Complete the vault sequence in Underground Undercover
• From Downtown: Use Venom Dash to throw an enemy into a group of three or more
• Kitbash: Craft 10 Upgrades
• Overcharge: Defeat 100 enemies with Venom attacks
• Under Their Noses: Shut down all Roxxon Labs
• Salvager: Open all Underground Caches
• Underground Undone: Shut down all Underground Hideouts
• Up and Over: Perform a Venom Jump, then a Venom Dash on a single enemy
• Come at the King: Unravel a criminal conspiracy in Harlem

We didn't do a raid this evening, but I went o ver to hang out on BestiBunni's channel over at twitch.tv/bestibunni 

Did do some writing before finding out work was cancelled, so there was that positive, and used some funds I marked aside for entertainment to take advantage of the Xbox sale to pick up a few things. Tried to look for co-op stuff to do locally.

Our next stream on Saturday is scheduled for 7 PM Eastern, and I figure we'll just go ahead and finish Duke Nukem Forever to clear that game off the dockett.

So with that said, we'll see you next time over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

 

Duke Nukem Forever Has A Lot of Logic Puzzles

Hi everyone,

Finally received the paper work in the mail confirming my house is now mine... and this entire situation still terrifies me.

Work was meh, mostly voice mails and having to suspend one solid interview because the respondent couldn't continue.

Anyway our stream tonight ended around 1:30 AM, with making a lot of casual progress in Duke Nuke Forever, reaching Part 2 of the Underground portion. I mostly had trouble against the boss battles, but thankfully I'm playing this game on the lowest possible difficulty. Something that is shocking me is the number of puzzles in the game, mostly revolving around logic and basic physics. This is pretty shocking considering this is a Duke Nukem game. It does make me think even more that this game came out a console generation too late however.

On a side note, the infamous 'driving the monster' truck segments of the game weren't that bad, as all the fuel stops were clearly check points for Duke to get out of the truck to fight enemies on the ground. Also remember, it's a monster truck so it's going to get  terrible mileage... that said, it does get fairly good mileage considering we only put a few gallons of gas into the damn thing! 

We are in pretty good position to finish Duke Nukem Forever next time we stream it, which is pretty cool. That said, I have no interest in the expanded DLC content for it.

Duke Nukem Forever Achievements

• Baron von Nukem: Shoot down 20 alien fighters
• Big Guns, Big Ships: Blow up 5 enemy gunships or dropships
• Hippy-Stomper: Foot stomp 12 aliens
• Road Rage: Kill 15 aliens with the monster truck
• He's Got a Hologram!: Use a Holoduke in SP
• A Good Dam Fight: Defeat the Battlelord on the Hoover Dam
• Judge, Jury, Executioner: Execute 20 aliens
• Freeze Well!: Kill 15 frozen aliens
• Duke Angry, Duke Smash!: Kill 15 aliens with melee attacks while on steroids
• Fork the Pork: Kill 6 aliens with the forklift
• Octacide: Defeat the Octaking

For the raid we dropped in on abbyleveleduup who was playing Overwatch 2 over on twitch.tv/abbyleveleduup

Finished the WWE short story commission and now my attention turns to a Mass Effect short story commission and I want to set it around Admiral Xen trying to get Shepard to give the Legions to the Quarians.

Our next stream is slated for 9:30 PM Eastern on Friday with the continuation of Spider-Man Miles Morales, we're going to go after the a lot of collectables first before progressing the story.

So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

 

 

A Bit of Unplanned Variety

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream opened with Resident Evil 6 and yes we were playing with Iceman, as we knocked out Chapter 4 of Chris's campaign... and we could've probably knocked out Chapter 5, but Iceman was unable to continue. But good news is we'll be able to finish the campaign next week and probably start up the Jake/Sherry campaign! Compared to Chapter 3 last week, we had little trouble with Chapter 4.

So with Iceman having to go early, I switched over to Forza Horizon 5, mostly just messing around, grinding towards some achievements. Also tried out the Hot Wheels area, and that is going to be pain to find all the roads in it!

Lastly we jumped into PowerWash Simulator to begin another assignment, nothing major, getting 40% of the detached home done.

All of this resulted in getting achievements across three different games, so that was pretty cool.

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• They're ACTION Figures!: Collect 3 figures.
• There's Always Hope: Complete Chapter 4 in Chris' campaign.

Forza Horizon 5 Achievements

• I'll Just Take this Now: Win your first Midnight Battle
• No One Expects the Hot Wheels Expedition: Arrive at the Horizon Hot Wheels Outpost
• The Rookie: Complete the Rookie Qualifier Event
• Icy Roads Ahead: Win any race that includes sections of Hot Wheels Ice Track
• Missions!: Complete 5 Missions

PowerWash Simulator Achievements

• Pave the Way: In the Detached House, complete the Pathway, Driveway and Driveway Edges first

Following the stream we raided pradoxgamerau during their stream of World of Warcraft over on twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

Did some yard work in the morning, mostly cutting branches that extended over the sidewalk... unfortunately this lead to me taking a nap and losing the afternoo

Work was really good, getting 5 interviews done, but work also ran a bit long because of the final interview, meaning I didn't eat dinner. Oh well.

For our next stream we'll be playing Duke Nukem Forever at around 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden 

So with that we'll see you later!

The Court of Owls...

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream of Gotham Knights was a bit long because I got side tracked in doing many side activities along with letting dialog and stuff play out. The big plot reveal that the villainous Court of Owls is interesting, and I wonder how much of an influence the TV series Gotham had on them being featured. Also discovered Mr. Freeze is running around and that's a plot that needs to be dealt with but it has no bearing on the main story it seems.

Staying focused on using Batgirl girl has apparently lead to unique character stuff happening, so I wonder if that pertains to Robin, Nightwing and Red Hood as well. Loved that Renee Montoya and the Penguin are being used as allies that provide reoccurring challenges for me to knock out.

The whole 'night' cycle of the game is rather unique and really raises questions regarding how much does Batman get done in one night... but then again I'll worry less about that question going forward because as soon as I learned fast travel was a thing, I unlocked it to make sure we can jump from place to place with little trouble going forward! 

Also managed to experience the co-op drop in feature of Gotham Knights, which ended up being a lot of fun

Gotham Knights Achievements

• To the Victor Go the Spoils: Uncover a new problem at S.T.A.R. Labs
• Get ReQ'd: Discover a sketchy self-help program in Gotham's streets
• Whispered Words: Complete Case File 02: THE RABBIT HOLE

We didn't do a formal raid tonight, instead I just went over to hang out on bestibunni's channel over at twitch.tv/bestibunni

Nearly finished the WWE short story commission and I'm already thinking about the one that's next which is a return to Mass Effect

Work was not as good as it was on Monday evening, but it was solid enough to get through.

Foot and ankle feel better, still need to keep it elevated at times, but at least when sitting  it's not feeling feeling hot.

Our next stream is for Wednesday night at 9:30 PM Eastern, and will see Iceman and I continue Resident Evil 6! 

See you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Batgirl is the Gotham Knight

Hi everyone,

We finished tonight's stream a bit before 2 AM because we started Gotham Knights and I quickly discovered that I'm going to do as much of the side quests as possible because this is clearly an open world adventure. In fact I would dare say that Marvel's Spider-Man clearly had a lot of influence on Gotham Knights in terms of its controls, play style and overall vibe of the story, despite everything being broken up over 'nights'.

As you can tell by the title, I've elected to do this playthrough as Batgirl for a few reasons, one I'm not a fan of The Red Hood, Nightwing comes across as being out of touch and Robin just seems like a terrible protagonist within the context of the game's plot. The overall vibe is something I can gel with.

Now do I regret starting Gotham Knights within the same time frame we're also playing Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Not really, the Miles Morales game is a lot shorter from what I can tell and it has all the collectables noted to be easily to find. 

We shall continue Gotham Nights on our Tuesday night stream!

Gotham Knights Achievements

• First Step Into the Knight: Unlock an Ability for the first time
• The Batman Family: Play as Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood
• Not On My Watch: Successfully stop all Premeditated Crimes in a single night
• Har, Har, Har, Very Funny: Visit an unlikely source at Blackgate Penitentiary
• Knighthood: Reach Knighthood with Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, or Red Hood
• Loose Ends: Complete Case File 01: BATMAN'S LAST CASE 

For the raid we visited SweetLindir who was playing Smite over on twitch.tv/sweetlindir

Work was really good on Monday night, getting six full interviews done, putting me two over on the production quota for the night. Granted no one knew I was scheduled for Monday, but hey, they rather have me on than most people!

Got a fair bit of writing done on the latest WWE commission request, I plan to knock out a good portion during the afternoon.

Also need to record the next episode of my reaction to Hellsing Ultimate Abridge

Anyway, we'll see you around 9:30 over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

The New Week Is Underway

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream ended well over an hour ago at the time I'm writing this, and we had a fun night of Overwatch 2, with PandaSweet being in a big part of the fun. Of course we had numerous instances of highly questionable teammates doing odd things that lead to the majority of our losses. Picked up two plays of the game as Reinhardt and D.va, giving us a total of four plays of the game for the month of July so far. Other characters used were Sigma, Moria, Ana, Lucio, Echo, Tracter, Orissa and Junker Queen.

For the raid we dropped in on MissCammi316 who was also playing Overwatch 2 over a twitch.tv/misscammi316 

Watched Terminator Salvation during the afternoon and it was alright, but it really does call into question exactly how old is the character of Kyle Reese is. Also got a chuckle out of the 'US Government / Military' is a complete bunch of idiots troupe being used. 

The swelling on my ankle and foot became a lot less notable today, it still looks odd but at least all the noticeable pain and inflammation feeling has faded so I don't have to take any Aspirin to mask the pain.

After this blog is posted I'm jumping right into work on the WWE short story commission to get as much of that done as possible before I go to sleep. I would have work on it during the day, but Comcast Xfinity set a tech out to try and resolve some of the issues that have cropped up, directly hooking up internet connection to the main line and dropping the splitter... did have to spend a lot of time waiting for them to show up.

At the moment, all five weekday streams this week will be at 9:30 PM eastern, I'm just about to give up on day work every returning to my job at this point. Hopefully we get all five days this week!

Speaking of which our Monday night stream will see us starting up Gotham Knights, a game where Batman is killed off, which is a really good concept. 

So on that note we'll see you over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Awesome Stream With Family For The First Time Ever!

 Hi everyone,

Today was a good day the pain in my left ankle is certainly fading and now I have to monitor the remaining swelling and hope is dissipates over the next few days.

Of course today was incredibly as my Cousin Frances and Aunt Grace came over, bringing some food to help ease my mind in terms of me cooking, but this also turned into a pizza party and most exciting a co-op gaming session with my cousin! Last time we played any video games together had to be when they were living in Collingswood back in the 90s, so this was great!

The game we ended up playing because I was totally undecided was Lego The Hobbit, and we both saw exactly why it got some real mix reviews with some bad camera angles, finicky pixel perfect issues when it came to interacting with objects and an hub world that takes too long to navigate! On top of that Several achievements associated with completing several chapters did not pop, because the last thing we completed was Over Hill and Under Hill! Hopefully they'll pop if I randomly load the game up another day.

Now I'm not going to play Lego The Hobbit with out my cousin, since we started it together and with all the unique quirks I listed, it is most certainly a game best played in co-op! Hopefully we can make arrangement for another Saturday night of shenanigans real soon!

On a side note, exposed Frances to Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.... it went well (I think lol)

We also included some Street Fighter 6 after my family departed for the evening, doing my placement matches as Cammy and actually ended up being placed in the Silver tier!

LEGO The Hobbit Achievements

• Someone to share in an adventure: Played a level in co-op
• A city turned to ash: Completed "Greatest Kingdom in Middle-earth"

For the raid we dropped in on Felkimchi over at twitch.tv/felkimchi while they were playing Doomsday: Last Survivors!

Got some writing done on the latest commission request and got a fair bit done, while also picking up another request for a Mass Effect story. So we have two stories in the queue.

The more and more I see of Mortal Kombat 1... the less interested I become, the announced roster has no one I'm interested in playing as, and the leaked / rumored roster is even less compelling. I did not have this view point when it when game to Mortal Kombat 9, X or 11 or even Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe!

Our next stream for Sunday night will feature Overwatch 2, it'll be a mix of playing quick play and knocking out challenges. Hopefully we'll have some good random match up pairings!

So on that note we'll see you next time over on twitch.tv/fredcasden